1) Didn't think we competed tonight offensively. Only saw about 120 pitches in 10 innings of baseball. This after seeing 170 or so last night. Didn't see the same offense tonight. Credit to Braden for being around the zone, but he's a 5/3 K/BB guy, and we managed to strikeout 10 times while walking once, and giving him 17 swinging strikes. Dallas Braden is a solid pitcher, but there is no excuse for letting him put up a line like that.
2) Like Snell throwing up in the zone, and really like the 92-94 he was hitting on the gun from innings four through six. Want to see him do it in Arlington against a decent lineup before I get somewhat excited. A's offense is pathetic.
3) Don't like the six man pen if Wak is going to waste Kelley by only using him one inning, and then go to Texeira only two innings later. How can you use both of your multiple inning guys so early in the action? He pretty much eliminated Brandon League from being used at any point because if Texeira comes out, now you are awfully close to running out of relievers.
I would advise Wak to not use both Kelley and Texeira in the same game, let alone use one of them for only one inning and then use the other one when you still have a guy like League who hasn't pitched.
Texeira didn't pitch poorly tonight but given that he was the last multiple inning guy left, Wak couldn't even seriously consider using League vs Ellis in the tenth.
As useless as that 7th man usually is, he at least allows the manager to manage his pen with freedom. If Garrett Olson is sitting in the pen as an emergency guy, maybe we don't have to run the rookie back out there after he pitches a highly stressful ninth inning.
My ten favorite things about getting nibbled to death by gerbils:
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10. The Angels lost. At home. Joe Saunders gave up three jacks.
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9. The M's are within 0.5 games of first place. The goal is to be within 4-5 games by the time Bedard gets back, so we feel no pain roaring along in a pack headed towards the first turn.
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8. Mark Lowe. Came in throwing 95-97 and the slider was untouchable. Making League and Kelley look like dead men.
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7. 160 games left to go. Nice to have baseball back, isn't it? Had forgotten how aesthetic a simple base hit up the middle looks...
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6. Ian Snell pitched just about the best game we've seen since he's been here. He's not throwing over a locked front knee.
He moved the ball up-and-down and changed the eye level. He threw plenty of offspeed pitches, Gil Meche style, and did a nice job. He touched 95 mph and hit 94 several times.
Although his perceived velocity is actually -2 to -4 mph off what the gun shows, still, 93-95 minus three is still 90-92 and it was located.
If Ian Snell were to pitch like this every game -- plus command, move the ball up and down, mix a lot of breaking pitches -- he would be a .500 pitcher, easily. The question is whether he can execute like this.
Adair and Snell did fix the front knee, so who knows.
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5. The M's have out-hit their opponents by 14 to 11 and have an EYE ratio of 11:10 (towards walks) after two games.
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4. The M's got beat on a good pitch. Kao-Kan gave up five hits in two innings, but that last one was a diving low-away pitch that will get you a strike or an out 14 times out of 15.
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3. The M's competed like contenders. Dallas Braden, with a hellacious changeup tonight, had his career high in K's .... by the 5th inning. It was probably the best performance of Braden's life, and yet the A's didn't beat the M's in 9.
Love the way the M's compete. 2008 seems a long, long time ago. The 2005-08-era M's would have folded this one up early. These M's battled to the death. Which they received. But I'd rather live and die with each pitch, than watch pro athletes go out there hoping they'll slip on a banana peel and land on a wallet.
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2. The luck of the three hole. Gutierrez looked funky in the #3 spot, but put the best swings on the ball of any Mariner. Somebody slide the poolroom markers over for Wok.
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1. Erik Bedard is throwing his curve in the bullpen and according to Shannon Drayer, is already at the point to where they "need to start building up his pitch count."
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So if the goal is to be in the mix, when the Trrriple Gunss start firing together, the first two days worked out just fine. :- )
Cheers,
Dr D
Comments
The *pitchers* and Moore competed.
The hitters got frustrated early and stayed that way. :daps:
Snell threw the ball better ... than *he* has thrown it. Against a tough lineup is a different story, agreed.
The one consolation is, nobody has to beat the Rangers 2-1 in Arlington...
Noticed the same thing. The M's just about had to hand the ball to Tex to finish up by the 8th or so.
A manager always keeps one pitcher in his hip pocket for 4-5 innings and that was Tex, but man, that occurred early.
In that particular game, I didn't get the 1 IP out of Kelley. Maybe Wok was visualizing a lockdown 2-1 win with a run scoring in the next coupla innings. If so, it was a dubious assumption. Oakland's bullpen is a lot better than our offense is.
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Another sizzling post NYM.
The best news is probably the positive updates on Lee and Bedard. We really need those two if we're going to take this division. The Ms simply aren't a very good team 3 out of 5 games right now (the guys either than Felix and RRS). Felix-Lee-Bedard-RRS is a rotation that few teams are going to be able to deal with.
Snell threw around 40% balls despite a wide strike zone today. I didn't see the game, but did anyone see if his landing foot was pointing towards the plate?
I'm against starting Kotchman against LHs or groundball RHs. Hes been sub-replacement level with those matchups. This is the biggest downside for me with rostering Sweeney.. Hopefully Sweeney is really rejuvenized because we need it.
I'm worried about 1B and DH (Griffey+Sweeney) offensively this season.. I'm a little annoyed with the decision to go with defense at 1B and chemistry at DH. I originally thought both Griffey and Kotchman would be bench players when they were acquired in the offseason. They are misplaced as starters IMO.
More than anything I hope Jack Wilson can rebound offensively.. We don't have the depth to cover for him.
Bradley should be fine once he tones his swing down.. Maybe Wak will consider moving him down the order to put some pressure off of him.
I'm a lot more concerned about Texas this season than Anaheim. The Angels' roster has the most downside in the division. Texas is loaded with talent.
IIRC, Kelley pitched multi-innings in 4 of his first 10 outings in 2009 and landed on the DL.
In glancing at his 2009 results -- he wasn't particularly effective in most games where he threw more than 30 pitches, (the multi-inning affairs).
So ... did WAK state that Kelley was going to be a long guy this year, or is this just the way everyone is WANTING him to be used? Because his quote after the game was pretty clear that Wak considers K-Tex the long man in the pen.
During first week of the season, I don't know of ANY manager who readily throws relievers into 3-inning stints, unless absolutely necessary.
Every April baseball month I've ever watched has been like a high school chemistry experiment for the managers -- trying out lots of different combos until the optimal one eventually materializes some time in May.
IMO, the bulk of the 11-man staff argument has been based around the (flawed) premise that everything always goes to plan. Clearly, the CLUB has considerable confidence in the pitchers on the roster - else they wouldn't have opted for the 11-man pen. In a baseball reality where *ACES* only throw 7 innings, you're running sky-high risk with a thin pen. This is doubly true for a club specifically built to consistently be playing 3-2 games. TIE games create mountains of uncertainty. And the club started the season with TWO 7th-inning ties.
Since the club plays 10 games before an off-day, I'd be shocked if there isn't some serious scrambling during these first couple of weeks. But, when Lee returns, who gets sent down? I think that choice is best served if you have ALREADY seen everyone in action as much as possible. If K-Tex or Kelley or White implodes ... maybe Fister heads to the pen.
It's not JUST about today's game - especially in April. Good managers have to balance the long AND short-term concerns. They have to balance personalities against stat sheets. They have to balance actions against player X that might have effects on player Y. For a real GM - *NO* decision is in a vaccuum that only applies to the immediate situation. And for those Managers that DO mono-focus on this one moment without contemplating all those other variables and ramifications ... well, those guys typically end up coaching in places like Pittsburgh or Washington, blaming their 100-loss seasons on the GM.
I could only check box scores but don't understand starting Bradley at DH (rest his legs after only one game?) and want to get Sweeney's bat into the order. Mayhe he is just too valuable smiling in the dugout? The end result is Byrnes over Sweeney. That is not even close. I watched Byrnes in a lot of games against Colorado. He seems like a great guy. But another swinging quite a light bat.
Or a daily visit from a lady of the evening before each game. Or a deep tissue massage between at bats. Or *SOMETHING* to calm him the frick down. He is practically helicoptering himself into the ground on every pitch swinging the bat...trying to hit the ball 500 MILES...let alone 500 feet. If he doesn't calm down, this is going to be a TERRIBLE year for him.
I think the fact that Kelley was going 2-3 innings at a time in Spring Training led everyone to believe he was going to be a guy who would come in and give you 3 IP each couple of days (meaning 2 IP one day, 1 IP the next... or 3 IP one day, then day off). I really think Wak just wants to get everyone in there based on his comments the other day about getting White "some work because he hasn't pitched in awhile". I think Wak wanted to get Lowe in there last night, so he had to pitch him in the 8th thus limiting Kelley to one inning.
I haven't been pleased with the bullpen management through two games, but I think you are right in that Wak wants to get everyone in there early on and see how these guys respond to different situations.
The camera didn't give a real good look at the angle of his front toes, but they looked pointed straight ahead to me. In any case, the knee was springy on finish, which is what matters.
Would almost say that the toe *had* to be pointed ahead for the knee to act like a shock absorber, but I suppose maybe there might be exceptions. Maybe.
But I think it's just a thing where the "Starters" don't want the second game off.
If he started this way in Chicago, they probably were no help to him as he began pressing, and the downward spiral started early.
Seattle, however, they'll get MB the coaching support he needs, and no doubt he'll relax into his game shortly.
That Kelley was being "stretched out" this spring so as to cover the long man, and other, roles, be Mr. Versatile for them.
Good question about his 30+ pitch splits last year, in limited opportunities. My expectation is the opposite -- that ex-starter Kelley is a good candidate for long outings -- but the data is useful.
:daps:
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Kelley has a better rhythm than Lowe, and far better than League or Aardsma, obviously, who sort of explode max-effort, herky-jerky into their releases. Kelley probably got his rhythm from his starting days.
Because this team is DEAD without an .850 OPS Bradley.
I don't like how reluctant Wak seems to be to swap batters in & out. We saw this last year, the Tui freezeout to start the season, his lack of leveraging platoon sitautions. So far in this extremely short time, we haven't seen anything to suggest that he'll change his approach, given a more powerful and versatile bench.
I agree it's good to keep rolling Bradley out there, to keep Kotchman at 1st for his defense, etc.
But if I had my rathers I would have seen Sweeney PH late in that game, or Tui for Lopez, or Langerhans... someone who can jack one in a 1-1 game. Come inning 7 or so, I figure, well the regulars have had there shot to do SOMETHING. Pinch hitting for one of those guys isn't a slight to them, it's just, let's let have someone else have a crack at making something happen and get everyone involved,
But it's early, we'll see how it goes. Good people management and winning games trumps any pecadillos I perceive in Wak's substitutions or lack thereof.
Sad when the manager has to look over the shoulder so much today with agents, etc when filling out the lineup card.
If anyone in Seattle ever wonders about Bradley, I am warning you Seahawk fans to stay AWAY from Brandon Marshall!!!